21st century's first zombie classic

Rating: Null/10 (2 July 2003)

28 DAYS LATER (2003) *** 1/2 Cillian Murphy, Naomi Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, Christopher Eccleston, Noah Huntley. Filmmaker Danny Boyle plumbs the dank, spooky depths of an Apocalyptic thriller cum zombie horror film and delivers the goods with dark élan in this smart, sharply drawn cautionary (and so timely) parable about a lethal virus unleashed on London wiping out the general populace except for a young man (Murphy) who awakens from a coma after a month and realizing he is one of the few human sole survivors while rapidly moving, red-eyed bloodthirsty victims run rampant. Among the people he meets and teams up with to find a way out of the hell on earth is tough yet vulnerable Harris, father and daughter Gleeson and Burns and an unlikely savior in the form of a military officer (Eccleston). A hybrid of a George A. Romero genre thriller via Kubrickian morality tale with a turgid taste of black humor mix into a highly intoxicating cocktail of lurid emotionally fused melodrama. Excellent cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle gives the film a truly otherworldly look. A rare treat: horror movie and social fable intertwined.